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Karstodiaptomus sheni n. gen., n. sp. is a new stygobiotic species of Calanoida (Crustacea: Copepoda), described from a cave in Yunnan Province, China.

By SHU Shusen Hits

The karst area of China covers 3.4 million km2, which represents about 35% of China's terrestrial land, with more than 500,000 known caves. The extensive karst area and numerous caves result in a rich stygobiotic biodiversity. Stygobiotic Calanoida are still regarded as an exception among subterranean taxa as they still practice a planktonic way of life, whereas other subterranean Copepoda are benthic. Only ten stygobiotic species of calanoids have been reported so far worldwide.

Assistant professor SHU Shusen, researcher of Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, also the member of CAS-SEABRI, who cooperates with domestic and foreign experts to collect specimen from a pool in the Dadong Cave in Yunnan Province, China (Fig. 1A–D). Then discovered a new stygobiotic species of Calanoida (Crustacea: Copepoda), called Karstodiaptomus shenin. gen., n. sp., which was named after the excellent Chinese specialist Prof. Chia-Jui Shen. It is the first record of stygobiotic calanoids from China and the fourth species from Asia. To accommodate the new species, a new genus, Karstodiaptomus n. gen., was erected.

This research presented as " A new freshwater stygobiotic calanoid (Copepoda: Speodiaptominae) from Yunnan, China ", and published in Zootaxa.

FIGURE 1. Geographical location and details of Dadong Cave. A, location of the cave in China; B, landscape around the entrance of the cave; C, details of the entrance; D, pool inside the cave, where the new species was collected (locus typicus).

Since 2016, KIB (Kunming Institute of Botany) and CPC (Centre for Plant Conservation of Vietnam) have conducted several surveys in the transboundary karst regions in Northern Vietnam and Southern China and seven new species in the genus Begonia Linn. (Be…